Shadow Tower
The Shadow Tower was a magical building that housed the Vanguards of Eesia. It was originally created by the god Amaterasu for his First Legion of Death Knights. The Vanguards inherited it when their member Denz convinced the god to lend it to them. Appearance The Shadow Tower is a massive Blackstone Castle Tower. It stands atop a floating piece of land, held up by a magical crystal at the core of the rocky ground. The Tower is much larger once entered. On the inside, is a very large hall with rooms for every member of the party. There is also a mess hall, an armory, a training room, and a number of other useful rooms. On the innermost piece of the tower is a courtyard, which holds a grandeur fountain and hedge cuttings of fallen allies. Under the tower is a cavern which holds the magical safe. The tower usually floats high above the clouds, and resembles a black spear as it descends closer to the earth. For this reason it is commonly referred to as "Heaven's Spear." Backstory The god of power Amaterasu formed the First Legion of Death Knights in the War of 1000 evils. Amaterasu needed a way for his soldiers to be able to travel between the Infernal and Black Planes quickly, so he built the Shadow Castle. During the war, the Shadow Castle was obliterated, and all that remained was the Castle's right tower. Amaterasu salvaged the tower and returned it to the Infernal Plane, allowing it to float freely in the fire realm. Eventually the Hawklords would come across the tower, and inhabit it. Amaterasu came to the Hawklords and allowed them protection in the tower if they took care of it. The Hawklords and the Shadow Tower were lost to time until the Vanguards of Eesia received the tower from Amaterasu. The Death Knight Denz convinced the god to give it to them as a means of transportation, and the god decided he could use it to spy on them. The Hawklords served the Vanguards, and they would use the tower as a headquarters during many of their adventures together. After the Escape of Tsukuyomi, the Shadow Tower sputtered out of space and landed in the Desolate Lands of Eesia. With Amaterasu trapped inside, the Tower shut down and was shortly buried in sand by the deserts endless storms. It was reopened when the demilich Wyninn attempted to reawaken Amaterasu, but was unsucessful. He drew upon the god's power and used it to create the Thermopylae Experiments. One of these experiments was an attempt to recreated the Death Knight army that had once served the god of power. Wyninn needed perfect specimens though, and began to imbue a number of subjects with dark magic. The only survivor of his first batch was a elvish man named Alryn, who escaped Wyninn's clutches and returned to the Land of the Elfs. Alryn would be all but forgotten when Wyninn was sucessful in creating a number of new Death Knight specimens. Wyninn would use the Shadow Tower as his laboratory and keep, and it would stay as so until the arrival of Leia. Member of the Warriors Seven, Leia was a paladin seeking to save the witch Brienna. Leia also happened to be the daughter of Alryn, Wyninn's first experiment. For this reason, Wyninn was commonly considered Leia's "Grandfather" in much of the mythology surrounding the Warriors Seven. Leia would come to slay Wyninn and his death knight followers, and obtain the location of the witch Brienna. Unintentionally, she too would come to free the god of power from his bindings and save Amaterasu. For this, he lended her the powers of the Death Knights and set about making a new order with her at the helm. Leia would help Amaterasu to destroy Tsukuyomi, and her army of Death Knights would go on to create peace in the Forgotten Plane. The Shadow Tower remained hidden in the dunes of Eesia after Amaterasu escaped from it, and eventually was swallowed by the mountains of sand. Legend says that a number of treasures and ancient secrets still lie within its walls, for any daring enough to find it.